Cinema's Best Shaggy Dog Story

With all humor, you either get the "joke" or you don't. If you don't,
no amount of explaining can change your mind. If you do, the details
are endlessly enjoyable.

Part of the joke that's "The Trouble With Harry" is that "nothing
happens." Hitchcock's "anti-Hitchcock" film defies expectations for
action, shock, mayhem, suspense, spectacular climaxes on national
monuments, etc. Instead, it's a New England cross-stitch of lovingly
detailed writing, acting, photography, directing and editing.

Saul Steinberg's title illustration tells you exactly what you're in
for. One long pan of a child's drawing of birds and trees . . . ending
with a corpse stretched out on the ground as "Directed by Alfred
Hitchcock" briefly appears.

So meticulously is "The Trouble With Harry" conceived, the only two
images in the title art that are NOT trees, plants or birds are a house
with a rocking chair on its porch and that corpse. The film literally
plays in reverse of the title sequence -- from little Arnie's (Jerry
Mathers, pre-Beaver. The boy who drew the titles?) discovery of the
corpse, back to the home with the rocking chair, as Hitchcock's final
"joke" puts the audience safely to bed. A double bed, in this case.

What's the film about? Oh, Great Big Themes like Life and Death, Youth
and Age, Love and Hate, Guilt and Innocence, Truth and Lies, Art and
Pragmatism -- packaged with deceptive simplicity.

The "hero," Sam Marlowe (John Forsythe), is an artist. The man the
"child" who drew the titles (Arnie, or someone like him) might have
become. His name is an amalgamation of two of hard-boiled fiction's
greatest detectives: Sam Spade and Philip Marlowe. Indeed, Sam Marlowe
functions here as a "sort of" detective. But enough of pointing out the
detailed construction of this script and film: repeated viewings yield
far greater pleasures.

"Introducing Shirley MacLaine" in her first screen role threw that
enduring actress into an astounding mix of old pros: Edmund Gwenn,
Mildred Dunnock, Mildred Natwick and Forsythe. That MacLaine held the
screen then, and still does 50 years later (name another major actor
who can say that), validates Hitchcock's astute casting.

In fact, TTWH is a tribute to cinematic "acting" as much as anything
else. These are among the finest performances ever captured of these
terrific actors. Since there are none of the expected "spectacular"
Hitchcock sequences, nor his nail-biting tension, all that's left is
for the actors to fully inhabit their characters.

That they do with brilliance, efficiency and breathtaking comic timing.
No pratfalls here. Just nuances.

Edmund Gwenn and Mildred Natwick are the real stars. Had Hitchcock said
so, the film would never have been produced. Their scenes (they receive
as much if not more screen time together than Forsythe and MacLaine)
are possibly the most delightful (and yes, romantically and sexually
tense) ever filmed of courtship in middle-and-old age. Perfectly
realized in every intonation and gesture. Occasionally laugh-out-loud
funny.

Theirs is paralleled by the courtship of the younger "stars," Forsythe
and MacLaine. "Love" at both ends of life, young and old, and love's
wonderful humor and mysterious redemption, even in the face of death --
that inconvenient corpse on the hill.

Perhaps the most surprising and powerful undertow in "The Trouble With
Harry" (one hesitates to name it because it's handled so delicately) is
Sex.

It is only barely present in the lines given the characters, but the
subtext is always there. Occasionally, it boils over into an infinitely
subtle burlesque, as in the exchange between Gwenn and Forsythe about
crossing Miss Gravely's (get that name?) "threshold" for the first
time.

The look in Gwenn's eyes and the repressed joy and romantic hope in his
face -- even at his stage of life -- is bliss.

The coffee cup and saucer "for a man's fingers;" the ribbon for Miss
Gravely's newly-cut hair (Wiggy cuts it in the general store -- Mildred
Dunnock in another unbelievably subtle performance -- muttering, "Well,
I guess it will grow back."); Arnie's dead rabbit and live frog; the
constantly shifting implications of guilt in the death of "Harry" up
there on the hill; the characters' struggles to regain innocence by
"doing the right thing"; the closet door that swings open for no
apparent reason (never explained); the characters' revelations of the
truths about themselves; their wishes granted through Sam's
"negotiations" with the millionaire art collector from the "city" --
ALL portrayed within the conservative but ultimately flexible confines
of their New England repression and stoicism (yes, the film is also a
satiric comment on '50s morality) -- these details and more finally
yield a rich tapestry of our common humanity, observed at a particular
time and place, through specific people caught in an absurd yet utterly
plausible circumstance.

Nothing happens? Only somebody who doesn't know how to look and listen
-- REALLY observe, like an artist / creator -- could reach that
conclusion about "The Trouble With Harry." Only a genius, like
Hitchcock, would have the audacity to pull the rug out from under his
audience's expectations at the height of his career by offering a
profoundly subtle morality play in the guise of a slightly macabre
Hallmark Card.

When the final "revelation" arrives, in the last line that takes us
home to the marital bed where love culminates and all human life begins
-- yours and mine -- and draws from us a happy smile of recognition, so
Hitchcock's greatest secret is revealed, more blatantly in this than
any of his films.

"Life and death -- and all of it in between -- are a joke! Don't you
get it?" It's there in all his pictures. Nowhere more lovingly and less
showily presented than in "The Trouble With Harry." Thank you, Hitch.

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50 out of 56 people found the following review useful:

Outlandish black comedy from Hitch, a failure when released as it was probably a little ahead of its time.

The Trouble With Harry is a comedy film about a dead body. Alfred
Hitchcock makes the macabre concept deliciously funny and entertaining
in his unique style. Helping Hitchcock to turn this unlikeliest of
premises into an enjoyable film are Bernard Herrmann (providing
fabulous music scoring), and a cast of winning actors who judge to
perfection how far to push their tongues into their cheeks.

A dead body turns up on a patch of grass near the top of a wooded New
England hill. Various people have reason to believe that they're
responsible for the man's death. Septugenarian ex-sea captain Albert
Wiles (Edmund Gwenn) is worried that he might have accidentally shot
the man while hunting for rabbits. Old spinster Miss Gravely (Mildred
Natwick) fears that when she whacked the man over the head with her
shoe, she may have done more damage than she intended. And single
mother Jennifer (Shirley MacLaine) has even greater cause to feel
responsible, for she is the dead man's wife. During an argument, she
smashed a bottle over his head and is now almost sure that he died as a
result. Local artist Sam Marlowe (John Forsythe) decides to help his
neighbours to cover up the crime, but after burying and digging up the
corpse several times, the truth behind "Harry's" death is finally
revealed.

No Hitchcock film divides viewers more than this one. Some consider the
film a masterpiece of understated black comedy; others deem it a plot
less, pointless time-waster. The film was a fairly massive box office
flop at the time (audiences obviously felt from the movie poster that
they were going to see a murder mystery, and were disappointed to
actually find themselves experiencing a bizarre, off-kilter black
comedy). In retrospect, I'd say The Trouble With Harry is a great film
that was probably a good two decades ahead of its time. The
performances are wonderfully outrageous, especially the elders (Gwenn
and Natwick) who give perceptive comic turns that actors nowadays just
don't seem to have the range to do. Forsythe and MacLaine are
delightful too (the latter in her movie debut), and Royal Dano rounds
off the cast as a gullible cop who nearly finds out that the other four
have been up to no good. There's no doubt that The Trouble With Harry
is an acquired taste; but if this taste is to your liking then you're
in for a delectable treat!

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55 out of 71 people found the following review useful:

Oh the irony!

I've been a big fan of Hitchcock as long as I can remember, but I only
had the opportunity to see The Trouble with Harry recently. I never
knew the film was a comedy before I began watching, so you can imagine
my surprise when one innocent character after the next stumbled upon a
brutally murdered corpse and react in the very least expected ways
possible. It was almost as surpring, however, when I read the comments
on IMDb and realized that a large portion of Hitchcock's audience
simply didn't "get it". Of course the character's are not reacting the
way real people would in these circumstances! How many of Hitch's
characters actually would? The Trouble with Harry is Hitchcock's own
jab at himself, at the entire suspense film genre, and a wonderfully
inspired satire on the implications of desensitization. The film is not
that simple though, for even in addressing these objectives Hitch
tantalizingly avoids any answers or definitive statements. Its a
difficult film to describe, but definitely worth seeing as it confirms
Hitchcock's dual mastery of comedy and suspense. Watch it for the
social commentary, the sleepy New England setting, but above all else,
for the blissful irony that fills its every crevace. It is the kind of
irony that makes shows like Family Guy so popular today. A wonderfully
surpring film in every way!

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30 out of 35 people found the following review useful:

Yes, a Hitchcock COMEDY. And it's very clever and a lot of fun!

One thing I really admire about Hitchcock was that he was willing to
experiment, and wasn't content to make the same movie over and over. This
meant that he sometimes made movies that puzzled his audiences, and several
of them were out and out flops. But the passage of time has been kind to
many of these movies which can be enjoyed for what they are, not what the
audience WANTED them to be. 'The Trouble With Harry' is a great example.
Many of Hitchcock's movies have humour in them, but an actual comedy was a
bit left field for him. And not just any kind of comedy, a very black one.
Humour is very subjective, but I found this movie to very clever and a lot
of fun. It gets off to a bit of a shaky start with John Forsythe's character
coming out with some unfunny lines and bits of business, but once the story
kicks in and the characters played by Edmund Gwenn and Mildred Natwick are
introduced, the movie becomes very amusing. Forsythe is technically the star
of the movie, and Shirley MacLaine (in her movie debut) the leading lady,
but Natwick, and especially Gwenn, steal the picture, and to me have the
best lines. Edmund Gwenn was also in the underrated 1950s monster movie
'Them!', and I'm really fond of him. I also get a kick out of Royal Dano who
plays the sheriff. Dano was a very interesting character actor who was in
everything from 'Moby Dick' to 'Drum' to 'Killer Klowns From Outer Space'.
To be totally honest 'The Trouble With Harry' wouldn't make it into my Top
Ten Hitchcock movies, but that is only because he made so many great ones,
and it's tough to choose, not because this is poor movie. If you want an
edge of your seat thriller then maybe this isn't for you, but if you thought
Hitch's droll introductions on his TV show were entertaining, then you
should check this one out, as it's cut from the same cloth.

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41 out of 58 people found the following review useful:

An absolute gem, one of the few 10's I've ever given!!!

This movie is fantastic. I don't think anyone except Hitchcock could have
made such humour out of a dead body.
Shirley MacLaine (in her first role) is delightful and Edmond Gwenn
perfect.
You'll see a young Jerry Mathers pre-dating Leave it to Beaver by a few
years.
Don't miss this little gem, it's as funny today as it was in 1955 and I
suspect for a long time to come.

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17 out of 20 people found the following review useful:

Entertaining Change-Of-Pace From Hitchcock

This is a real change-of-pace from Hitchcock, and some of his most devoted
fans do not really enjoy "The Trouble With Harry", but it is quite
entertaining if you appreciate Hitchcock's subtle British sense of humor.
There are funnier black comedies, but this one holds up pretty well, and has
a number of things going for it.

'Harry' appears only as a dead body, discovered at the beginning of the film
in a clearing outside a picturesque New England town. More than one of the
residents feels responsible for Harry's death - so, just by being there,
Harry sets off a lengthy chain of events in the lives of several persons in
the town. There are no tremendous laughs, but a lot of good low-key wit,
much of it having to do what the situation brings out about the various
characters' perspectives on themselves and others. The cast is pretty good,
and the scenery is beautiful, some of the best in any Hitchcock film.

There is not the action or suspense in this one that most fans associate
with Hitchcock. But if you appreciate Hitchcock's sense of humor - for
example, the kinds of subtly ghoulish remarks that he used to make on his
television shows - give it a try.

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20 out of 26 people found the following review useful:

Witty and clever

This film is a deviation from Hitchcock's normal subjects. Sure, there is
murder and intrigue, yet somehow a strange comical effect.

The trouble with Harry is black comedy at its finest. Nobody but good old
Sir Alfred could make a mockery of a dead body lying in the woods. But
Hitchcock revels in the role, displaying wit and character to a timeless
film. He's done it again!

Better than I expected

When I read the box at the video store, I thought it sounded a little silly,
but since it was directed buy Hitchcock, I decided to give it a try. I was
glad I did!

This film does a good job at showing what life is like (in a twisted way) in
a small American town. Of course the whole thing is a black comedy about a
corpse, but it's great fun, and suspenseful too, especially when Calvin is
in the room, questioning everybody. I didn't understand why the door kept
opening, but maybe it was just a joke - normally the door would signal a
killer entering or something like that - but the door is never any cause for
alarm.

All the actors are good, especially Gwenn, and Mrs. Gravely was so
endearing. Don't ignore this lesser known Hitchcock movie. It's a treat to
watch and is genuinely funny.

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20 out of 28 people found the following review useful:

Delightfully twisted

Everyone who had something to do with Harry just can't figure
out if he should stay buried or dig him up. From there,
Hitchcock's black comedy brings about tension and giggles.
Seems that everyone had a reason for wanting Harry out of the
picture, only trouble is, Harry is more trouble dead than alive.
A light film for Hitchcock, but it does contain the transference
of guilt theme, and the guilt bounces all over our main players.
A small gem of a film that often gets overlooked, watch this one
and you'll be charmed by the trouble that Harry causes.

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14 out of 18 people found the following review useful:

Twin Peaks 1950s style

The Trouble with Harry could well be one of the funniest films I have ever
seen. It's a case of Alfred Hitchcock successfully parodying himself, while
in the meantime offering some memorable cinematic moments.

Perhaps the most memorable is the screen debut of Shirley MacLaine, who is
extremely cute and animated and fun to watch. It's easy to see why Hollywood
fell in love with the elfin elder sister of Warren Beatty. Her performance
betrays her inexperience in front of the camera, but you'll be too busy
watching her facial expressions to care.

The rest of the cast is also excellent, with the actor who plays the captain
deserving special recognition for his calm and cool demeanor
throughout.

As far as the script goes, I think David Lynch must have had Trouble with
Harry in mind as one of the inspirations for Twin Peaks. The dialogue is
hilarious, with non-sequitors coming out of nowhere, as well as one-liners
that will have you backing up the DVD/video saying "did I really hear that?"
For one thing, the film is surprisingly risque for 1955 -- there's a boob
joke involving a statue that could easily fit into an Austin Powers movie,
and a pre-Beaver Jerry Mathers gets some of the film's biggest laughs with
some perfect comic timing.

It's a mystery to me why this film bombed in its initial release. True, it's
leisurely paced in comparison to other Hitchcock films, and there are no
scary moments to be found. Instead, this is a film that is fun to watch, and
provides laughs at the most unexpected places. Highly recommended.